With India’s new Covid-19 cases declining, is it time for New Delhi to emerge from lockdown?

  • Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says the situation is ‘vastly improved’ as the capital reports 1,500 new cases per day, down from 28,000 in April
  • But while shopkeepers and traders are pressuring him to lift the lockdown on June 1, experts are urging caution

A Covid-19 patient uses an oxygen mask at a temporary care centre in New Delhi. Photo: DPA
As India slowly begins to emerge from the horrors of its second Covid-19 wave, it looks as though New Delhi may on June 1 become the first city to take tentative steps out of lockdown.

After extending its sweeping coronavirus restrictions on a week-by-week basis from April 19, the capital’s government is feeling more confident that the decline in new cases suggests the worst might be over.

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